The Cultural Body and its Changing Discourse: A Case of the Kirat Rai Women of Sikkim

Abstract

The body as a marker of culture remains inherent to the process of social construction across time and space. The body ideal that is curated at the cultural level often designates individuals to fit into the socially institutionalised bodily norms. The socio-cultural worldview of the Kirat Rai community strongly idealises the women and their bodies on the contours of traditional portrayal visualising the traditional ornaments dhungri, bulaki and chapteysuun and ethnic dress as similar to that of their female guardian deity Sumnina. However, with the advent of modernity and its accelerated influence, the ethno-cultural traits of visualising Rai women in present context have come in conflict with the body ideal endorsed in the dominant media. Consequently, Rai women at present are observed as negotiating with their traditional body images and their identity as mongoloid women which contradicts the global body ideals. This paper draws on the phenomenological approaches to understand the changing socio-cultural connotation of the body and unveil the negotiations carried by women of Kirati Rai ethno-group of the North-East Indian State of Sikkim in terms of their body image. The paper also attempts to analyse the way women are navigating through their cultural identity as Rai women amidst the structural influences of globalisation, modernisation, media and consumer culture on the body and its presentation. Thus, its ontological framework takes cognizance of both the structural contingencies reflected in the bodily choices and practices of the women and the subjective agency of the actors in carrying out various forms of negotiations at the micro level; thereby redefining the macro body discourse.